NBA Free Agency 2020: Day 2 Open Thread

Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the circus that is the NBA offseason, where the Milwaukee Bucks still have a ton of work to do.

On the free agency front, fan favorite(ish) Pat Connaughton was brought back to the Bucks, to take a spot in a rotation that desperately needs someone on the wing. The deal uses Pat’s Early Bird rights, meaning that he can re-sign with Milwaukee without taking up an exception (specifically, the midlevel exception), though I questioned the wisdom of committing to his ~$4.0M now instead of after the front office knows they are bound by the hard cap or not.

In other news, some have expressed concern over the lack of formal details around the Jrue Holiday trade, and it turns out there’s nothing official yet because the deal isn’t actually done yet. There has not been more information about specifics yet, except for that the Pelicans may be receiving Steven Adams from the Oklahoma City Thunder. In all likelihood, the Bucks will potentially re-route one of Eric Bledsoe or George Hill, or some of the draft compensation sent to New Orleans, but it remains possible that they add more players to the deal to bring in someone else who has not been named. After all, D.J. Wilson and Donte DiVincenzo were traded away this offseason once, why not make it stick the second time around?

Here are some details to keep in mind for the offseason:

• Players currently under contract: $110.4M (Giannis, Khris, Jrue, Brook, Donte, Thanasis, D.J.)
• Cap holds: $5.5M (Frank Mason III’s qualifying offer, making him a restricted free agent), Pat Connaughton’s rumored contract (expected Year 1 salary: $4.0M)
• Dead money: $5.0M (Larry Sanders and Jon Leuer)
• Salary cap: $109.1M
• Luxury tax: $132.6M
• Tax apron (“hard cap”): $138.9M

As updates become available, we will update this post accordingly (unless the updates are important enough to merit their own post.) Stay tuned!

UPDATE: So about that Pat Connaughton deal...

The terms of the contract are not yet officially known, but one of two things have happened. Either Adrian Wojnarowski got it wrong and the second year is fully guaranteed (as is required to re-sign a player using Early Bird rights), or the Bucks goofed and used part of their midlevel exception to re-sign Connaughton. They could try and renegotiate to get the player option removed before putting pen to paper (which wouldn’t be bad for Pat; guaranteed money is guaranteed money), but this reads as a significant misstep that, if not rectified, could severely hamper the Bucks’ offseason from here on out.

UPDATE: Reportedly, the Bucks are adding Bobby Portis, who could be a useful backup big man if the price is reasonable.

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